Building a Solid Foundation
Andrew Hitz
It takes a really intelligent person to practice really slowly and say “this is what’s good for me”.
- Joe Alessi
Earlier this week I was the guest of Mike Parker at the Monumental Brass Quintet Tuba Boot Camp. We led the kids through the first page of the Schlossberg book and it reminded me of the above quote by Joe.
Like anything else in life, playing an instrument well is predicated on a solid foundation of fundamentals. Many young players, especially the good ones, gravitate towards practicing very difficult and complex music all of the time. But in actuality, it is the many hours spent practicing the simple things like tone production in the middle register that have produced the finest players in the world throughout history.